Great Tips for Moms Working at Home
Posted: Monday, August 29, 2011
by Heidi DeCoux
Clear Simple Marketing and Clear Simple Living
Organizing home paperwork and managing your time are two large struggles that come along with working from home. While there are struggles being a work at home mom also comes with the magnificent benefit of being able to share the day with your children. Knowing how to keep yourself organized while doing it in order to have the most successful career or business from your home is key!
First decide when you are going to work and how many hours you will need to do your job. This will vary depending on your children and how many hours your job or business will require. If you are at home alone with an infant or toddler that needs much of your attention nap time may be the obvious choice for work time. Likewise if you take a child to preschool or have a nanny or other help during the day these would be good hours to designate as work hours. In addition to knowing when you are going to work, know when you are not. If your preschooler likes to tell you all about what they did that day schedule an hour break when they come home to spend with them looking at their new artwork and giving their stories your full attention. If you schedule in the break you won’t have to be thinking about work you should be doing while your four year old tells you their day’s adventures. Also know that if you are working around an infant or toddler’s schedule right before nap or a meal are not going to be good times to attempt to be productive.
When putting together your schedule be specific. Moms working at home may schedule their day casually, such as I will work on project A in the afternoon. Until suddenly the deadline for project A is looming closer and closer and you are nowhere near complete. Try something like this instead, from 6-7am I will return emails in relation to project A, from 7-8am I will complete an outline, ect. Make sure the goals you set for your time blocks are actually obtainable. If you can never complete what you want to you’ll start feeling overwhelmed and like you are constantly playing catch up.
Reduce your to-do lists. This is an important part of organizing home paperwork. If you have to-do lists written in five different locations chances are things are falling in to the cracks. Find one central location to track all of your to-dos.
Keep your work area organized and clear of things not work related when at all possible. If you find your kids things, or extra mail and house clutter, keep ending up at your work area try a drop basket. Keep a small basket, or dedicate a drawer, to things that don’t belong at your desk. Then at the end of the “work day” distribute these items to their actual home. This way you won’t get distracted ten times a day when you go to put away a child’s toy.
Plan your kid’s schedule ahead of time. Take twenty minutes in the evening after everyone has gone to bed to pull out activities, art projects, or cds that you will want to use tomorrow. Having activities on deck will save you time the next day from having to think of something and prepare it on spot. Plan and prepare snacks or any part of tomorrow’s meal that you can. For example chop vegetables, defrost, or pre-measure ingredients.
Plan, plan, and plan ahead! Organizing home paperwork is a central piece of being successful and happy. This will also help you avoid becoming weighed down and late with your work. Take each new day as an opportunity to refine your plan and find what works for you.
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